I went to SI yesterday late afternoon. From the levee, I could see six kites and a handful of windsurfers on the water. No waiting -- awesome.

Then I hit the parking lot. A solid line of campers, almost every one occupying two spaces -- the camper plus the "living room" occupying the space next to it. There was one parking spot left in the main parking area. This on a day when there was almost noone on the water.

I know some of you on this site frequently stay the weekend at Si with campers. But alot of the people I'm seeing have been there now for weeks (months?). For someone like me, who lives "locally", it seems incredible that the most convenient parking to the launches is allowed to be occupied by semi-permanent residents. Most of these folks already have all their gear piled up on the beach anyway; those of us day users have to drag all our stuff from the car every time. Why should we be the ones parking in the overflow lot?

I don't go to the park on the weekends anyway (I launch from LIttle Baja instead) because of this problem. I'm just wondering how everyone else can deal with it.

My friends and I have joked for years that if you can find a parking spot at SI (especially back in the day at the Nursery) then you are good to go worldwide. As the sayin' used to go, "get a spot". We go to concerts and sporting events and never stress over parking. We always note, "we're from Sherman!" Veteran parking skills developed locally.

What this means, of course, is that you can ALWAYS find a spot to park and have fun. Wait 'til you see mine this weekend-- first-class I'm sure and I haven't even scoped it out yet!

Yeah, sorry to bitch instead of to spread the glow about the session. It's amazing that you can still go to SI on a warm summer day and have an intimate session with just enough other folks to make it entertaining.

For me it was an opportunity to reacquaint myself with (relatively) light winds on my 14, after three days in a row last weekend of fast paced 10M kiting.

A perfect day to continue learning to boost, with the help of ramps thanks to a nice little swell. I even landed a few.